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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22703830">Take me back to the night we met</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeepGoing/pseuds/KeepGoing'>KeepGoing</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Teen Wolf (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>For Valentines Day, Future Fic, Happily Ever After, Hurts So Good, M/M, derek and stiles had a beautiful life together, elderly noah, its sad but beautiful, major character death in the distant future, noah/derek friendship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 12:21:44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,194</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22703830</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeepGoing/pseuds/KeepGoing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Noah smiles and nods as Derek recalls those early days, not flinching when Derek tells him of late night visits through the windows of his home and what some might call stalking on Derek's part. It was so long ago and Noah accepted Derek 27 years ago, a lot sooner than Derek had realized and realizes now that Noah knew a lot more than he let on.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>109</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Take me back to the night we met</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>A little valentines day ficlet for the sterek lovers out there. Yes its a bittersweet fic but beautiful if I do say so myself.</p>
<p>Comments are LOVE.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>
    <i>I am not the only traveler<br/>Who has not repaid his debt<br/>I've been searching for a trail to follow again….<b><i></i></b></i>
  </b>
</p>
<p>
  <b>
    <i>
      <b>
        <i></i>
      </b>
    </i>
  </b>
</p>
<p>It's an aged old question. </p>
<p>“Tell me about the first time you saw him.”</p>
<p>Derek looks across the carpeted room into aged beyond their years with wisdom, and just that, age, eyes, attached to a frail body sitting in a recliner probably as aged as him. It was something Derek had hauled into the room, against his will because he had told Noah time and time again he could get a new recliner, but stubbornness runs in the Stilinski family and Noah insisted the chair was just fine.</p>
<p>It was something Noah just couldn't bare to part with when the house was finally sold. Another argument Derek lost when he insisted Noah should keep the house and Derek could hire an in home nurse. Derek had gotten used to losing arguments through the years, but it doesn't make it any less unnerving. </p>
<p>So here Derek was, at the same time as yesterday, and the day before that and the week before that and months before that, sitting across from a 92 year young Noah Stilinksi in his one man room at the Beacon Hills senior living facility. Noah had been here for almost 7 months now. 7 months ...since…</p>
<p>
  <i>
    <b>Take me back to the night we met...</b>
  </i>
</p>
<p>

Derek's told this story at least 30 times by now, but even as sharp as Noah still is, his memory falters at times and he asks Derek these questions time and time again. Derek is starting to wonder if it is just Noah's memory or he just wants to be reminded of what was. What had been. To hear his name; to have the details retold from another point of view. Derek may never know. But it doesn't bother him to tell Noah when he asks. It helps Derek too. To remember. To keep the memories close. 

And Derek remembers. His hands that moved up to smooth over his short hair. His voice that shook and words that fumbled as they flowed from his mouth. A mouth Derek had gotten to kiss for almost 30 years. But at that time, Derek didn't know what was to come. He didn't know this boy would put out every fire that had been torturing Derek inside and replace them with new fires that Derek can still feel on his skin in the bed that is now empty on one side.

Derek remembers the fearlessness in the boys eyes. Challenging. Always challenging. And would continue to challenge him for so many years. 

Derek remembers the heartbeat. Fast and steady. A heartbeat he had grown to listen for and know anywhere, even in a town full of thousands of people and from thousands of miles away when college called and Derek knew he had no choice but to let go. At least for the time being. 

A heartbeat that started to sound slower and different, peculiar, about a year ago but the boy, now grown and almost nearing 50, insisted that the tiredness around his eyes and loss of appetite were just from long hours at the station and it was nothing to worry about. 

Derek should have known better. But he had gotten used to the stubbornness and again he always lost arguments when it came to the Stilinski's. </p>
<p>
  <b>
    <i>When you had not touched me yet<br/>Oh, take me back to the night we met...</i>
  </b>
</p>
<p>

Noah smiles and nods as Derek recalls those early days, not flinching when Derek tells him of late night visits through the windows of his home and what some might call stalking on Derek's part. It was so long ago and Noah accepted Derek 27 years ago, a lot sooner than Derek had realized and realizes now that Noah knew a lot more than he let on. 

Yet another Stilinski trait. 

Derek recalls screaming matches and tears. He recalls hugging the boy a little too tight the night before he left for college and how he finally got up enough nerve to kiss him when the following Christmas, the boy, who had become a man years before, in so many ways Derek still wasn't because age is just a number, was telling him with a scent of sadness but understanding that the relationship he had longed and yearned for for most of his life with the most beautiful girl he knew had fizzled before it barely began because without the chaos what did they really have? 

Derek had taken a chance because he felt, no knew that he and this newly become man DID have something beyond the chaos. 

And he was right. For once. </p>
<p>
  <b>
    <i>I had all and then most of you<br/>Some and now none of you…</i>
  </b>
</p>
<p>
It's ironic how all those years Noah was lectured by his son about his heart, here he sat at 92, his body slower and mind a bit less sharp, and the son now gone. Because of his heart. 

Derek and Stiles spent 27 years together. They never left Beacon Hills. Some left and never came back. Some left and returned years later realizing the town was calling them back. Derek and Stiles welcomed anyone and everyone into their home and lives. No matter how long they had been gone or how long they intended to stay. 

They had made their own little corner of stability and comfort and it was more than Derek ever deserved. But he cherished it and took care of it. He took care of Stiles. And Noah. And anyone and everything else Stiles held dear. 

They fell in love. Slowly at first and then all at once. 

And that's how Derek lost Stiles too. 

Slow differences in his health and demeanor. And then one day, he was gone. 

Derek blames himself. Like he does with everything else. He should have done something, been more demanding about Stiles getting checked out, taking it easy. But Derek had become so passive in their relationship, his guard had come down so much, that he let Stiles make most of the decisions. Derek always seemed to be wrong and Stiles had always been the brains, even in high school, even since that first night. 

So yeah. Derek blames himself. He had lost Stiles. Like everyone else in his life.</p>
<p>
  <b></b>
    <i>I don't know what I'm supposed to do<br/>Haunted by the ghost of you<br/>Oh, take me back to the night we met…</i>
  
</p>
<p>Derek knows he will lose Noah one day too. And then he will really be alone. And he will have no one to tell this story to. The story of the bravest person he ever knew. The story of a non traditional love story.</p>
<p>But for now, he will enjoy the company. Enjoy the twinkle in his eye and crinkle in the corners as Noah hears, yet again about the werewolf who fell in love with his son. His son ,who was the best thing about Derek's life. His very favorite thing. </p>
<p>“Tell me about the first time you saw him.”</p>
<p>Derek smirks and rubs the worn leather of his jacket.</p>
<p>“He was trespassing.”</p>
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